Gannett

Gannett Chairman Allen Neuharth denied Sunday that his newspaper group is involved in takeover negotiations with CBS or CNN. Speaking to 200 Gannett publishers gathered for the annual convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, said reports have nearly every major public media company either about to be taken over, or about to take over somebody else. "Much of this talk is fanned by financiers who hope to make quick deals by using `junk bonds` or other funny money," he said.

By Howard Pankratz and Steve Lipsher The Denver Post, October 21, 2003

Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant was ordered Monday to stand trial on charges of raping a 19-year-old employee at an upscale mountain resort. Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett said that viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution -- the standard in Colorado for preliminary hearings -- the evidence was sufficient to order a trial. "The presence of blood on the victim's underwear and defendant's T-shirt are ... evidence of submission and force based on the opinions" of the nurse who examined the accuser, Gannett said.

Gannett Co. Inc. has submitted site plans for a distribution and printing center for the company`s national newspaper, USA Today, for review by city officials. Melvin Clarke, Gannett`s manager of community relations, would not confirm Tuesday that the company has picked the 7-acre tract in western Miramar as its new southeast Florida site. "We`re close," Clarke said. "We may be making an announcement in a few days." However, Miramar is the only city to which Gannett has submitted site plans for a regional printing center, said Charles Overby, Gannett`s vice president of communications.

Over the scrub and brush of a dirt lot across from the Eagle County Justice Center, a tent city has risen. Eleven canopies cover newly constructed temporary studios for live television broadcasts. Parked bumper to bumper next to them are dozens of RVs, SUVs and large trucks, their satellite dishes pointed to the heavens. Near the courthouse, restaurants and stores bustle. Around town, which is isolated from most of the hubbub, nary a vacant hotel room can be found. Kobe Bryant will be here today, making his first court appearance in the sexual assault case that has transformed a portion of this normally tranquil mountain community into what is most often described as a three-ring media circus.

NEW YORK -- USA Today, Gannett Co.`s trend-setting but money-losing national newspaper, will lose "several million dollars" in 1989 but turn a profit next year, Gannett predicted Thursday. Speaking to analysts, Tom Curley, the paper`s president and chief operating officer, said: "We fully expect the 1990s to be our payback decade." The paper was launched in 1982 amid widespread Wall Street skepticism. Quickly, it generated many readers and huge losses, while the journalism community derided its bite-size approach to news and aped its splashy use of color and graphics.

Gloria Biggs, the first woman to become publisher of a Gannett newspaper, has died. She was 89. Mrs. Biggs died Tuesday of natural causes in an assisted care facility in Annapolis, Md., said her sister-in-law, Barbara Neustadt. Mrs. Biggs was promoted in 1973 to publisher of the Melbourne Times on Florida's Space Coast. "We hired her because she was the best known and the best woman journalist in Florida," said Al Neuharth, former Gannett chairman. "She was a good journalist ... a good manager of other journalists, and she was a deeply involved community person."

By Howard Pankratz and Steve Lipsher The Denver Post, October 21, 2003

Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant was ordered Monday to stand trial on charges of raping a 19-year-old employee at an upscale mountain resort. Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett said that viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution -- the standard in Colorado for preliminary hearings -- the evidence was sufficient to order a trial. "The presence of blood on the victim's underwear and defendant's T-shirt are ... evidence of submission and force based on the opinions" of the nurse who examined the accuser, Gannett said.

Knight-Ridder Inc. said on Thursday that it will delay plans to merge its financially troubled Detroit Free Press with the Gannett Co.`s Detroit News until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a challenge to the merger. That could mean that the two major daily Detroit papers will not merge until the spring of 1990, when the high court is expected to rule on the scope of the 1970 Newspaper Preservation Act. Until the Supreme Court announced that it would take up the issue, the papers were scheduled to merge on May 8. Knight-Ridder, which also owns The Miami Herald, said it still has no plans to scrap the merger.

WASHINGTON -- A monopoly in Detroit`s newspaper market, jointly controlled by the giant Knight-Ridder and Gannett chains, has jeopardized the independence of papers in 25 other cities, an attorney told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. A Bush administration attorney countered by telling the high court that a joint operating agreement in Detroit would allow two newspapers, two competing editorial voices, a chance to survive by merging their business operations. These oral arguments were presented to Supreme Court justices, who asked questions of both sides in a case brought by Michigan Citizens for an Independent Press.

WASHINGTON -- In his new autobiography, former Gannett Co. Chairman Allen H. Neuharth recalls a company luncheon at which he announced that Gannett`s board of directors had approved the launch of USA Today. Neuharth, who had pushed hard for the start-up of the colorful but costly newspaper, had told a lieutenant that a "spontaneous standing ovation" seemed appropriate when the announcement was made. Neuharth got what he wanted. On cue, company stooges sitting at strategic locations around the ballroom leaped to their feet, drawing the rest of the crowd with them.

Ardyth R. Diercks, an executive at Gannett Television, a unit of Gannett Co. Inc., will take over as president and general manager of WTVJ-Ch. 6, the NBC owned and operated station covering the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market. Diercks, whose appointment was announced Friday by Jay Ireland, president of the NBC Television Stations Division, will replace Don Browne, who in May was named chief operating officer at NBC-owned Telemundo Communications Inc., the country's second largest Spanish-language TV network.

As scrutiny of retirement plans increases after the Enron Corp. debacle, companies already are loosening restrictions on workers selling company stock in their 401(k) plans. International Paper Co. and newspaper publisher Gannett Co. recently said they would allow employees to sell company stock in their 401(k) accounts much more quickly than has been allowed. San Francisco-based ChevronTexaco Corp., the nation's second-largest oil company, said it would make similar changes in April. Pension experts said they expect these companies to be the first among many to revise rules related to selling company stock within 401(k)

Gloria Biggs, the first woman to become publisher of a Gannett newspaper, has died. She was 89. Mrs. Biggs died Tuesday of natural causes in an assisted care facility in Annapolis, Md., said her sister-in-law, Barbara Neustadt. Mrs. Biggs was promoted in 1973 to publisher of the Melbourne Times on Florida's Space Coast. "We hired her because she was the best known and the best woman journalist in Florida," said Al Neuharth, former Gannett chairman. "She was a good journalist ... a good manager of other journalists, and she was a deeply involved community person."

NEW YORK -- USA Today, Gannett Co.`s trend-setting but money-losing national newspaper, will lose "several million dollars" in 1989 but turn a profit next year, Gannett predicted Thursday. Speaking to analysts, Tom Curley, the paper`s president and chief operating officer, said: "We fully expect the 1990s to be our payback decade." The paper was launched in 1982 amid widespread Wall Street skepticism. Quickly, it generated many readers and huge losses, while the journalism community derided its bite-size approach to news and aped its splashy use of color and graphics.

WASHINGTON -- A monopoly in Detroit`s newspaper market, jointly controlled by the giant Knight-Ridder and Gannett chains, has jeopardized the independence of papers in 25 other cities, an attorney told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. A Bush administration attorney countered by telling the high court that a joint operating agreement in Detroit would allow two newspapers, two competing editorial voices, a chance to survive by merging their business operations. These oral arguments were presented to Supreme Court justices, who asked questions of both sides in a case brought by Michigan Citizens for an Independent Press.

WASHINGTON -- In his new autobiography, former Gannett Co. Chairman Allen H. Neuharth recalls a company luncheon at which he announced that Gannett`s board of directors had approved the launch of USA Today. Neuharth, who had pushed hard for the start-up of the colorful but costly newspaper, had told a lieutenant that a "spontaneous standing ovation" seemed appropriate when the announcement was made. Neuharth got what he wanted. On cue, company stooges sitting at strategic locations around the ballroom leaped to their feet, drawing the rest of the crowd with them.

As scrutiny of retirement plans increases after the Enron Corp. debacle, companies already are loosening restrictions on workers selling company stock in their 401(k) plans. International Paper Co. and newspaper publisher Gannett Co. recently said they would allow employees to sell company stock in their 401(k) accounts much more quickly than has been allowed. San Francisco-based ChevronTexaco Corp., the nation's second-largest oil company, said it would make similar changes in April. Pension experts said they expect these companies to be the first among many to revise rules related to selling company stock within 401(k)

The new president of NBC News is a dyed-in-the-wool Iowan who wears bow ties and has never worked in broadcast journalism in his life. But at his first meeting with the nation`s TV press over the weekend, Michael S. Gartner proved himself a master of public relations, completely disarming reporters with his dry wit and no-nonsense attitude. However, there have been few indications of how NBC News will change under Gartner`s leadership. "I`ve talked to Tom (Brokaw) about wearing a bow tie, but that`s the only substantive conversation we`ve had," Gartner, who had been on the job all of six days, replied when asked what plans he had in mind for the nightly network newscast.

Knight-Ridder Inc. said on Thursday that it will delay plans to merge its financially troubled Detroit Free Press with the Gannett Co.`s Detroit News until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a challenge to the merger. That could mean that the two major daily Detroit papers will not merge until the spring of 1990, when the high court is expected to rule on the scope of the 1970 Newspaper Preservation Act. Until the Supreme Court announced that it would take up the issue, the papers were scheduled to merge on May 8. Knight-Ridder, which also owns The Miami Herald, said it still has no plans to scrap the merger.

The new president of NBC News is a dyed-in-the-wool Iowan who wears bow ties and has never worked in broadcast journalism in his life. But at his first meeting with the nation`s TV press over the weekend, Michael S. Gartner proved himself a master of public relations, completely disarming reporters with his dry wit and no-nonsense attitude. However, there have been few indications of how NBC News will change under Gartner`s leadership. "I`ve talked to Tom (Brokaw) about wearing a bow tie, but that`s the only substantive conversation we`ve had," Gartner, who had been on the job all of six days, replied when asked what plans he had in mind for the nightly network newscast.